The Education Committee
EDUCATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Dr Lizelle Fletcher
CHAIR
Ms Fransonet Reyneke
SECRETARY
Mrs Yoko Channa
COMMITTEE MEMBER
SASA Website coordination/planning
MoU's
Liason between Education Committee and StatsSA/Eskom/SAS
University of the Witwatersrand
Mr Sisa Pazi
COMMITTEE MEMBER
3rd Year Bursary/Scholarship Competition
2nd Year Bursaries/Scholarship Competition
SAS Base Certification
Nelson Mandela University
Ms Nombuso Zondo
COMMITTEE MEMBER
SAS Honours Project Competition
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Prof Delia North
COMMITTEE MEMBER
Capacity building in Statistics Education
University of KwaZulu-Natal
PAST WINNERS AND RECIPIENTS
2020 Winners
2020 Postgraduate Paper Competition winners sponsored by SASA
1st Prize
Thembikosi Kunene (UP)
Title:Spatial dependency between a linear network and a point pattern
2nd Prize
Ivan Jericevich & Murray McKechnie (UCT)
Calibrating an adaptive Farmer-Joshi Agent-based model for financial markets
2020 Honours Bursary & Scholarship Competition winners sponsored by SAS®, ICCSSA and SASA
SAS Bursary: Sifundo Khumalo (UKZN)
ICCSSA Bursary: Sibongiseni Mthethwa (UKZN)
SASA Scholarship: Mathew De Bie (UP)
2020 Third Year Bursary & Scholarship Competition winners sponsored by SASA
Bursaries: Siyabonga Mazibuko (UKZN) and Zama Khumala (UKZN)
SASA Scholarship: Carl Combrick (UCT) and Santino Del Fava (UP) - Shared
2019 Winners
2019 Postgraduate Paper Competition winners sponsored by SASA
1st Prize
Lionel Yelibi (UCT)
Fast Super-Paramagnetic Clustering
2nd Prize
Essodina Takouda (UJ)
Ruin Probability in the Delayed Renewal Risk Model perturbed by Diffusion Process
3rd Prize
Shawn C Liebenberg (NWU)
A New Test for the Rayleigh distribution using the lesser-known Mellin Transform
2019 SASA Honours Project Competition Sponsored by SAS®
1st Prize
Matthew De Vries & Romelon Chetty (UCT)
Artificial Neural Networks in Precipitation - Stream Flow Modelling
2nd Prize
Nina Grundlingh (UKZN)
Modelling Impact Rates using Additive Models: A Case Study of Altech Netstar Data
3rd Prize
Yaseer Khan(Wits)
An Exploration of Penalized Logistic Regression Models in the context of Dreaded Disease Risks
2019 Honours Bursary & Scholarship Competition winners sponsored by SAS®, ICCSSA and SASA
SAS Bursary: Ketsane Nkuna (NWU)
ICCSSA Bursary: Mzimasi Mhlana (Unisa)
SASA Scholarship: Bernard McDonald(NMU)
2019 Third Year Bursary & Scholarship Competition winners sponsored by SASA
Bursaries: Ramaodi Matabane (Wits)Amanda Sithole (UWC)
SASA Scholarship: Thalentha Ngobeni (UCT)
2018 Winners
Postgraduate Paper Competition winners 2018
1st Prize
Jean-Claude Malela-Majika (UNISA)
Modified side-sensitive synthetic double sampling monitoring scheme for simultaneously monitoring the process mean and variability
2nd Prize
Isaac Singihi (UCT)
Diagnostics for joint models for longitudinal and survival data
3rd Prize
Anri Oosthuysen (UP)
Two new tests for Exponentiality based on the waiting times of the Poisson process
2018 SASA Honours Project Competition Sponsored by SAS®
1st Prize
James Lloyd (UCT)
The Classification of Galaxy Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks
2nd Prize
Sibusiso Thabene (UCT)
Sampling from Distributions Using Genetic Algorithms
3rd Prize (and Best Use of SAS)
Mark de Lancey (UP)
CLARA Algorithm for Image Clustering
4th Place
Ian Louw & Tristan Naidoo (SU)
An Empirical Study to Classify the Daily Movement of Naspers Ltd.’s Share Price: A Comparison of Statistical Learning Techniques
2018 Honours Bursary & Scholarship Competition winners
SAS Bursary: Noxolo Maluleke (UL)
Scholarship: Chiara Fazzini (UP)
2018 Third Year Bursary & Scholarship Competition
Bursary: T Chetty (UKZN)
Scholarships: A Viljoen (NWU) and BM McDonald (NMU)
2017 Winners
Postgraduate Paper Competition winners 2017
1st Prize
J Nienkemper-Swanepoel (SUN)
Exploratory study for the visualisation of incomplete multivariate categorical data
2nd Prize
K Yoo (UP)
Probabilistic SEM: An augmentation to classical structural equation modelling
Pali Lehohla Award for the Best Emerging Statistician
N Zondo (UKZN)
Student Attitudes towards Statistics: The case of South Africa
SAS Honours Project Winners 2017
1st Prize
Zolisa Bleki (UCT)
Laplace variational influence of the single-season site occupancy model using a probit link function
2nd Prize
Gabriel de Wet (UP): Methods for semi-supervised text classification
3rd Prize
Nathaniel Joselson (UCT)
An examination of the use and interpretation of principal components in generalised linear models to treat multicolinearity amongst predictors
2017 Third Year Competition Winners
SAS Bursary: A Langston (RU)
ICCSSA Bursary: Z Adams (SUN)
SASA Scholarship: N Gorlach (NMU)
2017 Second Year Competition Winners
Bursaries: W Chitsike (UP) and C Fazzini (UP)
Scholarship: W Abrahams (NMU)
2016 Winners
Postgraduate Paper Competition winners 2016
1st Prize
P Sewmohan (UP)
A comparison of the EM algorithm and the method of maximum likelihood under constraints (MLEC)
2nd Prize
J Mazarura (UP)
A comparison of the performance of Latent Dirichlet allocation and the Dirichlet multinomial mixture model on short text
SAS Honours Project Winners 2016
1st Prize
Luca Steyn (SUN)
Statistical Modelling with Quantile-based Methods and L-moments
2nd Prize
Brett Rowland (UP)
Mixtures of Gamma Distributions to Model the Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Wireless Channels
3rd Prize
Kaylan Moodley (UCT)
Application of Linear Programming to a Classification Problem
2016 Third Year Competition Winners
SAS Bursary: C Dunderdale (NMMU)
ICCSSA Scholarship: L Boswell (RU)
Scholarship: R du Toit (NWU)
2016 Second Year Competition Winners
Bursary: A Langston (RU)
Scholarship: H Maclean (RU)
2015 Winners
Postgraduate Paper Competition Winners 2015
1st Prize
C Janse van Rensburg (UP)
Big Data: A Compressed Sensing Approach
2nd Prize
H Sadiq (UCT)
Inferring HIV-1 Drug Resistance as Episodic Directional Selection using Topic Models
3rd Prize
C Ras (UP)
Risk Performance of a Heteroscedastic Preliminary Test Estimator under the Reflected Normal Loss Function
SAS Honours Project Winners 2015
1st prize
Margaret de Villiers and Dalene Bezuidenhout (SUN)
Influence of Right-Censoring on Some Kernel-Smoothed Hazard Rates
2nd Prize
Alex Lau (UP)
Techniques for Background Modelling in Images
3rd Prize
Izak Nel (UCT)
Investigating Specification Tests for Short Rate Diffusion Models
2015 Third Year Competition Winners
SAS Scholarship: D Botha (SUN)
ICCSSA Bursary: K Mfeka (UKZN)
SASA Bursary: M Alexander (UP)
2015 Second Year Competition Winners
Scholarship: C Dunderdale (NMMU)
Bursaries: C Zwane (UKZN) and S Mphuthu (UP)
2014 Winners
Paper Competition for Young Statisticians winners 2014 (attending ISI in July 2015)
George O. Agogo (Wageningen University and Research Centre, Netherlands, Kenyan)
A flexible Zero-Augmented Generalized Gamma Mixed Effects Regression Calibration model to Correct for Measurement Error in Episodically Consumed Food
Tsiresy Pierre Bernard (UCT, Madagascan)
A graphical overview of social inequality in South Africa
Aviwe Phelele Gqwaka (NMMU, South African)
Efficiency Analysis of Electricity Distribution by South African Municipalities: A Cost Frontier Approach
Seitebaleng Makgai (UP, South African)
Mixture of exponentiated Pareto model through beta type generator
Brenda V. Omachar (UP, Kenyan)
The quantile-based generalized logistic distribution
Opeoluwa. F. Oyedele (UCT, Nigerian)
Biplots for sparse partial least squares
Willem D. Schutte (NWU, South African)
On the application of a new nonparametric estimator for the off-pulse interval of a light curve using a computer package
Postgraduate Paper Competition Winners 2014
1st Prize
Johané Nienkemper-Swanepoel (UFS)
Multiple Imputation using Regularised Iterative Multiple Correspondence Analysis
2nd Prize
Herbert Hove (WITS)
Characterisation of the Joint Behaviour of Competing Risks: Application to Accelerated Reliability Testing
3rd Prize (Official Statistics discipline)
Yegnanew Shiferaw (WITS)
Improved Confidence Intervals under the Fay-Herriot Model: Application to Poverty Incidence in Ethiopia
SAS Honours Project Winners 2014
Cornu Campher (Wits)
Point-in-Time – Through-the-Cycle Dual Calibration
Lionel Kemba (UKZN)
Modeling financial data using the generalized hyperbolic distribution with an application to South African exchange rates
Melinda Ross (UCT)
Phylogeographic Analysis of the Influenza A Virus in Africa
2014 Third Year Competition Winners
Scholarship: Ms Emma Plumstead (NMMU)
Bursaries: Ms Shannon Sass (NMMU) and Mr Sabelo Mokoena (UKZN)
2014 Second Year Competition Winners
Scholarship: Ms M Alexander (UP)
Bursaries: Mr O Mokoena (UL) and Mr T Mchunu (UKZN)